Plastic recyclers latest in Rockford's industrial gains

ROCKFORD — Two Chinese plastic recycling companies are coming to Rockford, creating 30 jobs in the latest small steps to the Rockford area’s industrial recovery.

JNC Inc. and GNC Inc. are moving into 50,000-square-feet at 2020 Harrison Ave., which for years was home to Tan Books & Publishers.

JNC Inc. is relocating from Chicago and GNC is opening its first U.S. operation. GNC recycles plastic. JNC buys the petroleum-based finished product and ships it back to China for reuse.

When the businesses begin operations in 2014 the more than 350,000-square-foot building built in 1937 with much lower ceilings than what is required by most of today’s shippers and manufacturers will be about 50 percent occupied.

“It’s tough to fill older buildings with lower ceilings and a lot of deferred maintenance, no question,” said Bharat Puri, director of finance and commercial development for First Rockford Group, which bought the building in 2008 for $1.5 million and spent another $3 million repairing the roof and renovating the property.

“It takes a lot of capital and risk, but if we don’t do it then these buildings will become like AMCORE and Tapco — unusable for anything.”

The Tapco and Amerock buildings, former manufacturing sites next to Davis Park on the Rock River in downtown Rockford vexed economic development people for years because they were no longer suitable for manufacturing or even warehouses and extremely costly to remodel for mixed uses.

Tapco was torn down in 2012. A Madison, Wis. developer, Gorman & Co., is shaping plans for a potential redevelopment of the Amerock building.

While Amerock is a visible reminders of what can happen to aging buildings, pretty quietly much of the space emptied out in the Great Recession and the not so great recovery is being filled.

The industrial vacancy rate of the Rockford area has fallen to its lowest level since before 2011, according to Colliers International, one of the world’s largest commercial real estate services providers, which tracks commercial/industrial vacancy rates.

The local vacancy rate skyrocketed from 9.02 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010 to 12.06 percent in the first quarter of 2011, according to Colliers. That was when a wave of closings announced in 2009 and 2010 actually took place.

The vacancy rate has steadily dropped since, falling to 9.01 percent in the second quarter of this year, slightly below the Chicago-area rate of 9.03 percent.

“What’s taken place is a lot of expansions,” said Mark Podemski, vice president for development for the Rockford Area Economic Development Council. “Because they aren’t new companies they aren’t as visible.”

Podemski said the Colliers figures don’t include the Woodward Inc. $300 million manufacturing campus under construction in Loves Park that may add 1,500 jobs to the area over the next 10 years or new companies coming to an industrial park in Machesney Park being built by Landmark Development.

So far, Landmark has announced SCP Distributors, which distributes pool equipment, and HMC Products, which makes packaging equipment, will be moving into its Park 90 Corporate Center.

“For a long time, we weren’t building much to attract new companies,” Podemski said. “Now, we’re starting to get to the point where we will have some very interesting industrial space.”